The Wisdom Books
Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary
Published on 11. October 2010
Book
Hardback
416 pages
978-0-393-06812-2 (ISBN)
Description
Here, in Robert Alter's bold new translation, are some of the most magnificent works in world literature. The astounding poetry in the Book of Job is restored to its powerful ancient meanings and rhythms. The account of creation in its Voice from the Whirlwind is beautiful and incendiary-an unforgettable challenge to the place of man in the universe. The serene fatalism that construes life as ephemeral and without purpose suffuses Ecclesiastes with a quiet beauty. The pithy maxims of Proverbs impart a worldly wisdom that is still sound and satirically shrewd.
Each of these books conveys and undermines the universal wisdom that the righteous thrive and the wicked suffer in a rational moral order; together they are essential to the ancient canon that is the Hebrew Bible. In Alter's translation they regain the energy and force of the original, enhancing their ongoing relevance to the lives of modern readers.
Each of these books conveys and undermines the universal wisdom that the righteous thrive and the wicked suffer in a rational moral order; together they are essential to the ancient canon that is the Hebrew Bible. In Alter's translation they regain the energy and force of the original, enhancing their ongoing relevance to the lives of modern readers.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 168 mm
Thickness: 36 mm
Weight
784 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-393-06812-2 (9780393068122)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
The Wisdom Books
Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary
Book
10/2011
WW Norton & Co
€19.00
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Additional editions
The Wisdom Books
Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary
E-Book
10/2011
W. W. Norton & Company
€18.49
Available for download
Person
Robert Alter's translation of the Hebrew Bible, the magnificent capstone to a lifetime of distinguished scholarly work, has won the PEN Center Literary Award for Translation. His immense achievements in scholarship ranging from the eighteenth-century European novel to contemporary Hebrew and American literature earned Alter the Robert Kirsch Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Los Angeles Times. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, Alter is the Class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley.